411 Box Office Report: Identity Thief Walks Away With #1

Identity Thief was the big winner at the box office this weekend. The Melissa McCarthy/Jason Bateman comedy opened with $36.6 million, far above the expected $20 million, for the #1 spot. The film had the biggest opening of Bateman’s career as a lead actor and the biggest for director Seth Gordon to date. It averaged $11,650 from 3,141 theaters; the budget for the film was $35 million.

Coming in at #2 was Warm Bodies, Jonathan Levine’s zombie romantic comedy, which was down one spot from last weekend with $11.5 million. The film had a second-weekend drop of 44%, which is fairly good for a horror comedy. The film has now grossed $36.7 million domestically and $45.4 million worldwide from a budget of $30 million.

Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects opened fairly well, bringing in $10 million in its opening weekend. The psychological thriller, which starred Rooney Mara and Jude Law, averaged $3,845 from 2,605 theaters; positive word of mouth and critical reaction should help it in successive weeks. The film’s budget was $30 million.

Silver Linings Playbook was down one spot to #4 in its thirteenth week with $6.9 million. The film was down just 11% from last weekend and has now grossed $90 million domestically and $120 million worldwide from a budget of $21 million. It looks likely to pass The Fighter as David O. Russell’s highest grossing film both domestically and in worldwide gross at this point.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters fell three spots in its third weekend, down to #5 with $5.8 million. The Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton-starring dark action-fantasy has now grossed a total of $43.8 million domestically and $127.8 million worldwide from a budget of $50 million.

Jessica Chastain’s horror film Mama was down two spots to #6 in its fourth week. The Guillermo Del Toro-produced horror picture brought in $4.3 million; it has now grossed $64 million domestically and $77.4 million worldwide on a budget of just $15 million.

Zero Dark Thirty was down two spots to #7 with $4 million. Kathryn Bigelow’s military thriller about the hunt for Osama Bin Ladin has now pulled in $83.6 million domestically and $96.6 million worldwide on a $40 million budget.

Up three spots in its eighteenth week, and back into the top 10, was Ben Affleck’s Argo. Riding the strength of its awards momentum, the film about the CIA rescue of US citizens from Iran under the guise of a movie production brought in $2.5 million. That pushed the film’s domestic gross to $123.7 million and its worldwide gross to $198.7 million. The film’s budget was $44.5 million.

Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained was down one slot to #9 in its seventh weekend with $2.3 million. It has now brought in $154.5 million domestically and $341.6 million worldwide with a budget of $100 million; it is Tarantino’s highest-grossing film both domestically and overseas.

Sylvester Stallone’s Bullet to the Head fell four spots to #10 in its second week with $2.0 million. The action flick, which co-stars Jason Momoa, fell a slightly-above average 57% to bring its two-week total to $8.2 million. The film had a budget of $55 million.

The weekend box office tally was $104.9 million, down a huge 45% from last year’s $191.9 million gross that was led by the openings of The Vow, Safe House, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and the 3D re-release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, all of which did over $20 million.

Note: Numbers include Sunday estimates and are three-day estimates. A studio recoups 55% of a film’s grosses on average, meaning it needs to approximately double its budget to be profitable during its theatrical run.